The Anisoptera as recognised here includes the modern dragonflies (Eteoanisoptera) and a number of close fossil relatives, united by the possession of non-petiolate wings. Excluding the basal Henrotayia marci, whose affinities are somewhat uncertain, Anisoptera are also supported by forewings with the nodal Cr nearly perpendicular to RA and ScP, and with a pseudo-IR1 vei; the presence of an 'anisopteroid vein' (AA + CuA)b in the hindwing; and a transverse anal triangle in the male (Fleck et al. 2003).

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The information presented on this site has been collated from a number of external sources. Apart from the time taken to bring it all together, very little of it represents my own work. All images and quoted text remain the intellectual property of their original owners, and remain subject to all relevant copyrights and controls. If you re-use anything taken from this site, please attribute it to the original owner. If you are the intellectual owner of anything presented and you are unhappy with the manner of its usage, please do not hesitate to contact me so that I may rectify things.

About the Dendrograms

Most entries on this site are furnished with a dendrogram (tree diagram), showing taxa included in the subject taxon. These diagrams are not primarily intended to represent cladograms. Taxa in the dendrogram may be arranged taxonomically or phylogenetically; priority has been given to taxonomic arrangements, and formally-named taxa are presented as if they were monophyletic unless one of the source references has indicated otherwise. The reference for each element of a dendrogram is represented by an alphanumeric code derived from the author(s)' initials and the publication date (e.g. 'B09'); the identity of the reference so coded can be found in the reference listing. Some taxa may have more than one reference listed against them: for instance, one reference may have indicated the phylogenetic position or current combination of a taxon, while another may have indicated the taxon's authorship. Synonyms of species and genera have been listed with '=' to indicate an objective synonymy, 'incl' (includes) to indicate a subjective synonymy.

Because the dendrograms have been compiled from a number of sources, there may be unresolved conflicts between classifications used by different authors. Also, few, if any, of the listings are complete. As this site was first intended to demonstrate, there are a lot of species out there!

Some of the abbreviations that have been used on this site are:
i. s. = incertae sedis (indicates a taxon whose position within, or inclusion in, a given higher taxon is uncertain)